Paradise Now

Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Year: 2005
Cast: Kais Nashif, Ali Suliman, Lubna Azabal.
Rating: ***1/2 (out of ****)


Here I am, good five hours after watching this wonderful, thought provoking cinema taking a sip of warm coffee and a thought suddenly hits me. I had just seen one of the disturbing ending to a motion picture in recent past. The drama created (I don't know whether it's based on true events or not still the backdrop is totally inspired by real world situations) only helps the plot. Except for some needless cat-dog chasing coincidences, everything is spot on and nothing seems redundant. So unsettling that made me more of a pessimist (I hate to say so though) about the future of humanity, a value we cherished for centuries, the value that form the very basis of us being human. I started getting this feeling that an eye for an eye is going to make this world blind. Or has it?

Rounders

Director: John Dahl
Year: 1998
Cast: Matt Damon, Edward Norton,Gretchen Mol, John Turturro.
Rating: *** (out of ****)

Let me declare, I don't know squat about Poker. Check, fold, blinds, I don't even understand the terminology properly. Still I had fun watching this movie. Like Scorsese's The Color of Money. How a man gets sucked right in the game even if he thinks he's through. Here, Mike (Matt Damon) does it for a friend 'Worm' (Edward Norton). I don't think he did it for Worm, he got into this trouble for himself or for 'the love of the game'. Because by any stretch of imagination, supporting a friend like worm seems unreasonable.

A good film.

Vozvrashcheniye/ The Return

Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Country: Russia
Year: 2003
Cast: Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko, Natalya Vdovina.
Rating: *** (out of ****)

This is the second movie I have watched from Russia. There's a unique quality about both Stalker and The Return. The camera angles and movements seem to have something to tell, to convey. The cinematography by Mikhail Kritchman is chilling, with muted bluish, greenish shades. There is anguish, sorrow, frustration, insecurity that's engulfing Ivan, in those frames, supported by great background score by Andrej Djorgatsjev. It's not like today's modern Hollywood style with rapid flash editing which, by the way, I don't have any problems with if used to serve some purpose rather that disorienting the poor viewer. Anyway, it's like the narration flows with the camera not giving a slightest hint what is going to happen. I really am finding short of adjectives to describe the climax. One thing I can tell you is, this is compelling, haunting and unusual motion picture that will linger in your head for more time than you expect.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Director: Ken Loach
Year: 2006
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Pádraic Delaney, Orla Fitzgerald, Liam Cunningham.
Rating: **** (Masterpiece)

I'm really overwhelmed by this motion picture. It's exhausted me emotionally.

Events transpire in Ireland sometime around 1920. Presents a brutally true picture of Irish freedom struggle. IRA was formed to accomplish the dream of a free Ireland. Later IRA compromised it's principles and started talks with Britishers for something less than that (an Irish Free State within the British Commonwealth). The revolutionaries that saw the blood of their fellow Irishmen spilled feel the martyrs and their families are being cheated and decide to continue war themselves. Conflict. Dilemma. Those who stared off together become foes. Things unravel and lead to something utterly unpleasant and unexpected. Their every argument, every action, pain, suffering, every atrocity they face, you will feel it, you will be there right into that frame. Hats off to Loach and Barry Ackroyd , the cinematographer.

This is first Ken Loach movie I've seen and I assure you it wont be the last.